Latvia, a nation of about two million located on the Baltic Sea, only has 17 indoor hockey arenas — 2,614 fewer than Canada, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation — but it has one player who is running away in voting for the 2015 NHL All-Star Game.

, a 20-year-old centre playing for the Buffalo Sabres, had earned 803,805 votes to play in the game. That total is more than double the support given the second-most popular player, with Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane drawing 375,758 votes through the first three weeks of voting.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Girgensons sat 143rd in the NHL’s scoring race.

According to the NHL, 82 per cent of his online support has come from Latvia.

“It seems that ice hockey is more popular than anywhere else in the world, in Latvia,” Andris Razans, Latvia’s ambassador to the United States, said with a laugh on Tuesday. “That’s the only explanation.”

Girgensons, he said, is already well known at home.

“Almost each and every Latvian is an ice hockey fan,” Razans said. “And beside that, it’s the most popular sport in Latvia, ice hockey. We have had great ice hockey players before.”

Goaltender Arturs Irbe is perhaps the best-known Latvian player, at least among watchers in North America. With his unusual white helmet and battle-weary white pads, Irbe was a Stanley Cup finalist with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2002.

AP Photo/Gary Wiepert

Defenceman Sandis Ozolinsh played in 875 regular season NHL games. Karlis Skrastins, another defenceman, once held an ironman streak of 495 straight games, and appeared in 832 regular season games before he died in the plane crash that killed most of his KHL team in Yaroslavl, Russia, three years ago.

According to the IIHF, Latvia only has 3,965 registered male players. Canada, by way of comparison, has more than 116,000. Still, Canada just barely inched past Latvia in their quarterfinal meeting at the Sochi Olympics, squeaking out a 2-1 win to advance.

“In old Soviet days, we had only two ice hockey rinks,” Razans said. “Although, we had lots of frozen lakes and rivers, with youngsters playing on. So in a way, 17 rinks in a country of two million, that’s not a bad number.”

He said he was not aware of any organized movement to vote Girgensons into the game among Latvian fans. The only limit to voting is that fans are allowed to vote a maximum of 10 times a day on the same device.

The voting closes on Jan. 1, with Columbus hosting the game on Jan. 25.

“I’m very glad that a Latvian is really riding in a top position in this voting,” Razans said with a laugh.

If the voting had ended on Tuesday, Girgensons would skate alongside the likes of Kane and Jonathan Toews. The three most popular forwards will appear in the game.

Would Razans make the trip to Ohio to watch?

“I would love to,” he said with a laugh. “Definitely, if I had a chance and time … and a good reason to come, I’d be more than happy. Count on me.”